Duxford Airfield (the band) Pt. 10

Andrea abruptly climbed over Kendall and got out of the truck. My wife then came around to where I was standing and deftly hooked my fingers and tugged, indicating that she wanted to talk with me in private. It was obvious that Andrea wanted to leave now and she was losing her patience...

I pecked Helen on the side of the head and followed my wife, out of earshot of the others.

" - WHAT?!!! Why can't we go?! What the fuck's wrong now?! The paramedics already said we could go! Let's get out of here now and leave this goddamn place!" Andrea snapped at me with impatience.

I closed my eyes and sighed heavily as I held Andrea's palms within my thumbs and finger tips.

"...Andrea, Helen and Kendall are close to a nervous breakdown right now, and I need you to be calm and strong for them" I said quietly.

"Sure, fine. Let's fuckin' go then, and we'll be even more calm and strong once we get away from this shit hole!" Andrea snapped as she stared at me in anger.

"...Andrea, Earl and I just discovered King's remains, here on the property. The police are on their way" I said quietly.

"...OHHH, WONDERFUL!!! I should have seen that coming! I'll never forget this fuckin' Valentine's day, that's for goddamn sure" Andrea replied bitterly, holding her forehead and closing her eyes.

I pulled my wife close to me and held her.

"Either will I, my love. What a blessed and glorious Valentine's Day this has been for all of us! - Andrea, everyone here on this job site, is going to go home to their loved ones tonight, including us" I soothed.

Andrea pulled me closer to her.

"...I love you" she finally said after a moment's consideration of my logic.

"I know, baby" I whispered.

Looking down into Andrea's eyes, I saw the cold hard steel within her and suddenly felt a tremendous sense of pride in my wife...

Andrea began talking quietly to me now as she leaned into my chest. "We lost the large oval tintype of the Countess, I saw it get swept away with the water. The remainder of Helen's lunch is also gone, you should have eaten it when you had the chance but you were too slow, babe. Helen's hungry now and she's been bitching about you eating her lunch, for the last four or five minutes" Andrea said, peering up at me.

With the mention of Helen, my wife and I suddenly began laughing at the good fortune that had presented itself to all of us this day.

"...I love Helen Lunsford" I said smiling widely.

"Me too!" Andrea replied with laughter in her voice.

It felt so good to be alive and hold my wife now.

"I'm going to level with Helen and Kendall, about finding King's remains, Tim, they can handle it" Andrea said, looking up at me.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, after all we've been through in the last half hour?" I asked, glancing at the truck.

"We're not wall flowers, Tim. Helen was a reporter for ten years and Kendall is pure bred oil field trash, we're tougher than you'll ever be, my love" Andrea said bluntly as she released me and walked back toward the truck.

I simply sighed and followed Andrea back to the yellow crew cab. I suddenly had an urge to sit down, and promptly did so, on the passenger's side in the front seat.

"Tim and Earl found King, or at least what's left of the sonofabitch. That's why we're waiting now, so they can make a police report" Andrea said jumping into the rear seat again.

"You found him, really, where was he?" Kendall asked, turning her head and looking out the back window.

"They must have been in the process of building the water fountain, in the driveway, when King was killed. That's where he is now anyway, buried in the masonry. The gushing water tore away some of the fountain's crumbling stonework and I thought I saw a boot poking out of the masonry when we left the house, a few minutes ago. When Earl and I went back and looked, just now, it confirmed that I had seen a boot." I answered, with eye's closed.

"How do you know its him, and not someone else?" Kendall asked.

"Whoever the hell it is, he's wearing what's left of a thousand dollar pair of boots and the rotting remains of a very expensive pinstriped suit. He's also got a bullet hole in the center of his forehead" I sighed.

"It's just him, and not the mistress?" Andrea asked.

"Just him, Andrea. - Ladies, lets drop the subject please" I said, closing my eyes and rubbing my forehead.

"Serves him right, bastard!" Helen now said of King.

"I wonder if it was the Countess that blew his shit away?" Kendall roughly asked.

...Five minutes ago the ladies had all been on the verge of tears, now they were all acting like pissed off Amazon women ready to kick ass. Undoubtedly there were several stages of shock after a near death experience, which only a psychologist would understand. Fear and anger seemed to be the two prevailing emotions now, at least among the ladies...

...Hell, I didn't understand women on my best day, much less in a situation like this.

I promptly got out of the truck and walked over to where one of the wooden benches from Prominent House had washed out onto the debris field. I slowly set the bench upright and sat down to be alone and think for a few minutes. I needed to distance myself from the ladies, I needed to distance myself from everyone right now.

I was suddenly extremely tired, I now noticed as I closed my eyes.

...Within the last forty minutes of my life I'd seen a torrent of water, strong enough to destroy a concert grand piano and then shoot it out a doorway, all within a split second. The jet of water had also been powerful enough rip down the massive cathedral doors of Prominent House, effortlessly.

All of us had, just previously, been sitting or standing directly in that water's path mere minutes, prior to the violent eruption of that water. Had we remained where we'd been for another ten minutes, we'd all be dead this very moment...

Within the last forty minutes, I'd also stumbled across the hundred year old remains of Isaac King, another experience that I never wanted to repeat.

I still hadn't gotten the horrible stench out of my nose yet either.

...For some reason I desperately wanted a cup of coffee right now. I also noticed that my hands were still shaking and that I'd cut my right hand on something, but I didn't know what.

Andrea deftly came and sat beside me and put her arm around me.

"You OK, babe?" she asked gently.

Now I had to choke back a few tears and also shame, but I managed.

"No" I replied.

"Finding King's remains upset you, honey?" Andrea asked quietly.

"Not really" I replied.

"...What then, babe?" she asked, confused.

"I saw my coil of rope out here" I said, nodding my head in the general direction.

"That upset you?" Andrea asked.

"Yes" I said.

"Why does that bother you, Tim?" she asked.

"Because it makes me realize just how stupid and arrogant I've been, Andrea. I thought I knew everything, I acted like a big shot and thought I could navigate safely through this hundred year old deathtrap. My fucking ego almost got all of us killed" I said bitterly.

"Honey, I don't understand what you mean" Andrea said.

" - Andrea, the other night, when we were inside the bowling alley of Prominent House, I felt the floor bouncing up and down with our foot steps. I thought I was just tired and imagining it, I wasn't. What we witnessed, just now, with the swimming pool collapsing, could very well have happened that night. I should NEVER have agreed to take my wife and friends inside that damn house. My arrogance almost cost me my wife, and my friends" I said quietly, covering my face.

" - Oh no baby, you don't get to carry all the blame yourself! We ALL signed that fuckin' waiver, you included. Yes, we should have put two and two together when we saw the waterfall inside the damn bowling alley, we should have thought about all the rain coming inside the damn house but we thought it was all going down some drain, and a lot of it probably was" Andrea said firmly.

"...God, this was all such a stupid idea" I said shaking my head, as a few tears slid down my cheeks.

"Tim, you're in shock right now, we all are. Stop blaming yourself. - If we hadn't gone in that damn house, then Helen Lunsford would have gone all by herself, you can bet on that! If we'd permitted that, Helen probably would have accidentally blown the damn place to Kingdom Come by now, you know how she is" Andrea retorted.

Andrea's analogy of Helen made me snicker, and I nodded my head. Helen would have gone inside Prominent House by herself, there was no doubt in my mind about that.

"Let's just thank God that we're all OK, and try to be more sensible in the future, OK, honey?" my wife asked, kissing the side of my head.

"OK, I love you" I said, wiping my tears.

"I love you too" she replied.

"...I think all the vibrations from those compactors, here on the pad, must have been what triggered the collapse of the swimming pool, Andrea. When the water erupted I saw a very large section of badly rusted I-beam fly out the door, I think the pool collapsing was an accident just waiting to happen" I said quietly.

"Who the hell puts a full size swimming pool on the third floor of a mansion, for Christ's sake?" Andrea asked incredulously.

"An extremely arrogant sonofabitch, puts a full size swimming pool on the third floor. - Looking back on the other night, I remember thinking that there were an awful lot of vertical pillars and arched ceiling joyces along the lanes of that bowling alley. They were there to support the damn swimming pool, obviously" I now reasoned with disbelief.

My wife grunted but made no other reply as she sat comforting me for several minutes without either of us speaking any further.

Helen suddenly called out for Andrea, asking something about cell phones. My wife kissed me again and got up to see what Helen needed.

...My wife stank of swimming pool mold, she was dirty, tired and irritable. Yet, she'd never looked more beautiful to me in all the time that I'd known her...

"Mind if I sit down, sir?" Earl asked, walking over to me.

"Please do" I said, nodding beside me.

"You doing OK, son?" Earl asked, looking over at me as he sat down.

"I married one hell of a woman, that I can tell you, Mister Billingsly" I said, glancing after Andrea.

"That you did, Tim" Earl nodded.

"How are you doing, sir?" I asked.

"My foremen and the paramedics just informed me that everyone's OK" Earl replied with relief in his voice, and closing his eyes.

"I am very grateful for those words" I answered.

Earl and I fell silent for a few moments then.

"...Tim, can I ask you something? - You don't have to answer" Earl now said.

"Sure, go ahead and ask" I replied, looking up at him.

" - Forgive me, but I just have to ask this. Before all of you sold Prominent House to the oil company, why didn't you try to hoard all the wealth that's inside that place? There's gold everywhere in that damn house, but none of it appears to have been touched. There must be a million dollars worth of gold door knobs in that mansion but it doesn't appear that you've taken a single one, you never touched the paintings either. May I ask why not?" Earl asked, looking over at me.

"(sigh)...Earl, I thought about it, and I even started to remove a few of the door knobs on two occasions but something always made me stop, some deep gut feeling.

...My mother, was a woman of strong faith, sir. She had more faith in her little finger than I'll ever have in my entire being. Mom had a slogan that she always tried to live by, 'Dirty hands, clean money.' I'm not a saint, by any means, and I enjoy having money in my pockets, as much as anyone. But I guess her philosophy must have rubbed off on me to some extent.

- As you undoubtedly know, Isaac King was accused of treason, which he was probably guilty of, at least everything seems to point to his guilt. Whenever I'd start to take something of value from that house, I'd remember all the World War One soldiers dying in the trenches in France, far from home. It's my belief that a large majority of King's wealth was built on the blood of those very soldiers, and most likely other forms of treachery as well.

Like yourself, Mister Billingsly, my wife and I have worked hard all of our lives, and we're comfortable. We're not filthy rich, by any means, but we're comfortable. Call me a sentimentalist, or call me superstitious, but I believe there's karma associated with money, and I want none of the damn money associated with that house. My wife and I will undoubtedly find a reputable charity and donate our proceeds from the sale of that house. I strongly suspect that Helen Lunsford will do likewise" I replied quietly.

Earl made no reply for several seconds.

"...Dirty hands, clean money, I like that. Your mom must have been quite a lady, Tim" Earl nodded.

"Indeed she was, sir" I answered.

...A police cruiser suddenly came into view, traveling down the last hundred yards of Prosperity Way and heading toward us.

"That should be Mister Pack, approaching now" Earl nodded, as he stood.

...Within half an hour, Andrea, myself, and Helen were all riding in the police cruiser operated by Officer Benny Pack, a native Texan and chief of police for Odessa.

Earl and Kendall were following us in the yellow crew cab, accompanied by two more of their coworkers, who'd been on the pad during the water's eruption.

"Always wondered about the story of Isaac King, folks around here still talk about him, even to this day" Benny elaborated casually as I sat in the front seat with him. Andrea and Helen were currently sitting in the rear seat, inside the 'cage' of the police cruiser.

"They probably still talk about horseshit sticking to the bottom of boots, around here, too" Helen retorted, sitting in her dirty white tank top and scowling out her passenger window.

...I couldn't help it, but Helen's raw sarcasm suddenly made me start laughing uncontrollably and I couldn't stop. With everything that we'd been through together within the last two weeks, including our near death experience an hour ago, it all suddenly seemed incredibly hilarious now.

I glanced back at Helen again, as she continued staring out the rear passenger window with a disgruntled look on her face. Helen's hair was a complete mess and she had smudges of dirt on her face now. Sitting in the back seat of the cruiser, Helen looked like she'd just robbed a liquor store and then scuffled with arresting officers.

"Known these two long?" Benny asked, glancing over at me with a smirk.

"Never seen either of them in my life, officer. They both look like they belong in jail, to me" I answered, still laughing.

Andrea and Helen ignored me with sour expressions.

Regaining my composure some, I pulled out my phone and took several snapshots of Helen and Andrea sitting in the back cage of a police cruiser.

"Smile ladies!" I said, taking their photos.

"Oh, you ASSHOLE! I KNEW you were going to do that, the second we sat back here!" Helen now snapped.

I began laughing all over again as Andrea rolled her eyes at me and shook her head.

"...You just had to get her riled up, didn't you, Tim? You just couldn't leave it lay, could you?" My wife asked with a disgusted sigh.

I smiled at my wife but made no verbal reply as I studied the photos I'd just taken.

All of us now became quiet for a few minutes as we continued to travel along the dirt road.

...I casually glanced out the passenger's window again and saw that the dozens of huge cricket pumps were still slowly and methodically pumping the black gold from beneath the rich Texas earth. These large machines were working just as they had been this morning, yet, somehow, seeing them again now suddenly brought extreme joy to me. The reason for this joy was because my wife and our friends were still presently very much alive to actually see the earth and sky again.

"...It's good to be alive, ladies" I said quietly.

"I love you, Tim" my wife responded.

"I love you too, Tim" Helen said.

"I know, ladies" I answered without turning to look back at them.

Helen's phone abruptly pinged with a text message, bringing all of us back to the present moment again.

"Is the department going to investigate this murder, Benny?" Andrea suddenly asked, leaning forward.

Oh yes, by law we have to, Misses Donovan, but right now we'd just like a statement from each of you, just as a formality" Benny replied as we turned onto Oilwell road.

"You're really going to investigate a hundred year old murder?" Helen asked.

"We're going to look into it, yes, Miss Lunsford, and it'll stay on the county books indefinitely. But I'm not going to waste much of the county's money in trying to solve a hundred year old murder, no. Besides, we've already received a statement on King's death" Officer Pack explained.

"Oh, what year was that statement given, sir?" I asked curiously.

"About forty minutes ago" Benny answered.

"WHAT?!!!" all us asked at once.

"News travels fast in a small town like Odessa, and everyone's already heard about Isaac King's remains being discovered now, including the guy that just gave us the statement" Benny explained.

"The guy that killed him is still alive, you mean?" Helen asked incredulously.

"No, of course not, that'd be impossible. What we have is a statement from a thirdhand hearsay witness, but we believe it's credible. You'll understand when we get to the station. This won't take long, and then you'll all be on your way" Benny answered.

"I don't understand" Helen sighed with tired resignation.

All of us were silent again for a few minutes, just listening to the police band radio as we traveled along Oil Well road.

It was Helen that abruptly broke the silence.

"...I guess the Countess did own a Duesenberg, at one time, Tim. She had a 1929 S J Town car with an enclosed cupola, whatever the hell that is. Jay Leno owns the car now, and it's got less than thirty-nine-hundred miles on it" Helen said, looking at her phone.

"Jay Leno owns it now?" I asked.

Yes, the Duesenberg belonging to the Countess, is now in the process of being made completely roadworthy again. Apparently Jay Leno has the largest Duesenberg collection in the world and he considers this car, having belonged to The Countess of Knoff, as his crown jewel. At least, according to this article, anyway" Helen said holding up her phone and showing me the photo through the police cruiser's cage.

I now peered at a beautiful, black, town car, with enclosed cupola and open air top for the driver. Jay was proudly standing beside the car, within the photo.

"Beautiful, Helen! Send it to me please" I said holding up my phone.

"...I wonder if Danny sold him the car? Did Kelly and Diane send you that?" Andrea asked, glancing at Helen's phone.

"Yes, they're trying to find out just what the story with the car is, now" Helen replied...

...We arrived downtown at police headquarters at a little past six PM. Earl, Kendall, and the two other oil field workers parked the yellow crew cab directly behind our police cruiser.

"...How you doing, babe?" I asked, helping Andrea out of the rear seat of the police car.

"What time is our Valentine's dinner?" she asked, ignoring my own question.

"Seven thirty, we've got more than enough time to get there" I reassured her.

"Helen, how you doing, kid?" I asked as Helen came along side Andrea.

"I'm tired, Tim, but I'm OK" Helen answered.

All of us began walking toward the police station entrance now. Without speaking, I reached back and took Kendall's hand, gently pulling her up inline with Andrea, Helen, and myself in a gesture of unity as we neared the entryway doors.

Kendall appeared to be doing much better now.

All of us followed Officer Pack into the station. He then led us upstairs to the second floor and into a private briefing room with windows overlooking the parking lot. I could see the police cruiser we'd just ridden in and Kendall's yellow truck below us now.